I wonder whether anybody could help with the following.
My dad is struggling to read and I think it would help if the books etc he's reading are being held in the right position for him as he has no use of his arms and hands now. He has still limited use of his legs but is now going to start using a wheelchair when outside. Does anybody know of anything that might help him? Is there anything that could be fitted to a wheelchair or mounted on a table?
Any advice very much appreciated

xx

Terry

21st September 2013, 20:12

Hi Sophie;
Have you tried a Kindle type device, they can be mounted on a wheelchair. Other than that there are talking books, they are available from the library. I am sure that some type of music stand would hold a book but turning pages might be harder.
Good Luck, Terry

magic

21st September 2013, 20:15

Consider using a raised board or a clamped stand. A stand that n you may use to hold a recipe book may help present the text in mod line. A goose neck clamp will allow you to present the book in unusual angles. Have you considered a kindle? You may need a switch device to turn the pages. There are specialist organisations like Abilitynet and many others who may be able to give more help.

Magic

Mal.

22nd September 2013, 11:35

My wife loves reading and she found that as her arms became weaker books were becoming too heavy to hold and turning pages was difficult so I purchased a Kindle for her which she was able to use for some months. Using the kindle then became difficult for her.
I downloaded the free Kindle App onto her laptop and with the laptop propped up on a stand on her overbed table and via the use of a wireless mouse she is again able to read via the Kindle App. The mouse requires minimal movement by fingers; only button clicking and scrolling via the wheel.
Hope this may be of some help.

koolsilver

22nd September 2013, 11:50

Audible books
Most libraries do Audible books, I checked this out when I was first diagnosed, but so far I have not needed it, if you go onto your local libraries website you should find one click digital media manager, this allows once you've joined to take several books for 5 weeks, each book is read to by the author or someone famous.

SophieM

22nd September 2013, 16:44

Thank you so much everybody for your brilliant advice. I really appreciate it. I organised my dad a kindle but he so far hasn't been able to use it a) because he can't hold it in the right position and b) he can't use the buttons to turn the pages. So your ideas give me a lot of new options to think about. My dad is in Germany so I need to find out what the equivalent of abilitynet is.

Many thanks again xx

Cath51

23rd September 2013, 11:07

Sophie
Mic uses the Kindle touch where you just swipe the screen to turn the page, much easier that the original one with the buttons, Not sure how the Kindle Fire measures up but that is the latest model, you could ask at your local superstore or PC world store to see if they have a demo model you could try out.
Cath

SophieM

24th September 2013, 12:00

Thank you so much for your reply, Cath.

My dad has tried an ipad equivalent but he couldn't use it as he couldn't swipe the page. I am going to look into special switch devices I think. My dad has basically lost all use of his hands now.

Thanks again

S xx

wooz

24th September 2013, 17:19

can he use the computer? I use the kindle app to read books!

ashfieb

24th September 2013, 18:21

I have been using the PC version of Kindle for reading books quite successfully for sometime, you can download it here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000426311

The progammable foot pedal from x-keys is spot on and works great with the PC version of Kindle for page turns

http://www.xkeys.com/xkeys/xkfoot.php

just tried it out with Dragon NaturallySpeaking and it works really well, 1st of all you download the program and install it on your laptop. Then you copy the Kindle book you want to read into the Kindle folder and then you can use voice commands as below: